My Animal Crossing
|genre= Casual, Simulation |modes= 1 |ratings= E for Everyone |platforms=Nintendo Wii U |media=Optical Disc |title=My Animal Crossing Animal Crossing Connections Dōbutsu no mori no hajimari }} My Animal Crossing (Japanese: 動物の森の始まり Dōbutsu no mori no hajimari / Animal Forest Beginnings) or Animal Crossing Connections in PAL regions, is the fifth installment (eighth, counting the three Japan-only titles: , and ) of the Animal Crossing series, and the series' first for the Nintendo Wii U. Like Animal Crossing: New Leaf for the Nintendo 3DS, My Animal Crossing has the first custom character as the mayor of the town, and can completely customise the style of the town to attract new villagers. However, unlike the previous installment, the player starts out in an empty town with only three random villagers, and it is up to them to get shopkeepers to town. Gameplay Similar to previous Animal Crossing titles, players are free to decorate their homes with various furniture that they acquire from villagers, trees and the local shops. Players can also customise their appearance with various shirts, pants, shoes, socks, hats and accessories, as well as get new hairstyles from the hairstylist. Players can also customise their town with a custom town tune, flag and patterns. A new addition to the game is the ability to change the 'style' of town, which also changes the villagers that can move to your town. Another new feature is that all villagers now have their own conversation codes, and do not copy their text from other villagers of the same personality. Town Styles There are three different town styles available for your town, and depending on which style is chosen by the mayor, different events occur at different times. The three different town styles are classic, resort and farm. All towns start with a town hall and museum, and other shops are opened up after a certain number of days-which change depending on the type of town. "Classic" towns are similar to towns of previous Animal Crossing games. Although villagers of all personalities can flock to the town, Normal and Jock villagers are more common. The town has a wishing well in the centre of town, a lake, a dump, and a lighthouse. The default shops are the Post Office and Nook's Cranny, which can be found anywhere in town. The town is surrounded by an ocean at the south end of town, and has a cliff (sometimes two, but that is rare), which separates the town into two, as well as rivers and smaller lakes scattered throughout the town-usually having a waterfall down the cliff. The town is powered by windmills, which are seen on the cliffs surrounding the town. "Resort" towns are very sunny and have water covering two sides of the town-usually the east and south ends of the town. Lazy and Snooty villagers are most common in these types of towns. Towns do not have cliffs or small lakes, but they do have a small river separating the town in two. Towns are usually seen down by the beach, and can often be seen sunbathing or swimming, something they do not do in other towns. The default shops are the Roost and Re-Tail. All buildings become more triangular and modern, and most have large windows. The town is powered by solar panels, which are seen on top of every building. "Farm" towns are very rainy and have farming fields surrounding three sides of the town. Peppy and Cranky are commonly found living in these types of towns, while Lazy villagers do not. These towns usually have two or three different types of native fruits-as opposed to the one of others-and all houses have a small garden to the left (or right, if there is no space on the left, as obstructed by rocks, trees or other houses) of their house. Like classic towns, farm towns have a cliff somewhere in town, although it is noticeable smaller. Many small rivers flow through these towns, and there are some small lakes scattered throughout. Unlike the other towns, which has their stores scattered throughout the towns, farm towns have all their shops in the City, which can be walked to by going through the town gate at the north of town. The default shops are the Garden Centre and Nook's Cranny. Relationships Like previous installments, My Animal Crossing allows the player(s) to become friends with other villagers. Although now, one can also be in a romantic relationship with a villager, once certain conditions are met. Once in a romantic relationship, they will not move out of town, and often send you gifts and ask you more favours. If one stays in a romantic relationship for two weeks-which means they must speak with their partner once a day-they will obtain a photo of that villager, which also comes with a short description of that character. These pictures can also be obtained by becoming a best friend of a villager, and speaking to them everyday for five weeks. While in a relationship, several interactions can be completed: hugging and kissing. If the player is the mayor, and in a romantic relationship, they can also hire their partner to be their secretary or assistant. In addition, they may also get a job at another store, allowing one of the shopkeepers (if there are multiple) to have the day off work, and walk around town. To get into a romantic relationship, the player must do a variety of things before the villager will ask them out on a date. These conditions are: *The player must live in town for at least two months. *The player must befriend that villager-by speaking to them enough. *The player must send a letter with a gift to that villager. *The Roost must have opened up in town. *The player must have upgraded their house thrice. Once those conditions are met, the villager will start to be infatuated with the player, sending them more letters and wanting to speak to them more. If they are spoken to, hearts will float around their head and they will blush, and ask the player out on a date to the Roost-which can happen immediately or at a different time. Players can break up with the villager by not speaking to them for three days, and then speak to them on the fourth. They may use an excuse ("I was on vacation.") or break up with them then. Holidays & Events See also: List of Holidays and Events in My Animal Crossing Throughout the year, various events and holidays occur-many based off real world holidays. During many holidays, a special character appears in town to 'host' the event, and can give out items to players. Some events are not 'big', and are limited to only being mentioned by villagers and a gift from Isabelle, while others can have aesthetic changes to the town, and have games or other events and/or a special villager. Minigames There are many minigames included within My Animal Crossing. Randomly, villagers will also ask to play some games with the player, including Hide and Seek, Capture the Flag and Scavenger Hunt. Winning these games increases friendship levels with all participating villagers, and earns a reward (either clothing, flooring, wallpaper or furniture-depending on the friendship level of the host). While these can randomly occur by talking to villagers, players themselves can activate these games when there are 4+ other players in their village, and the native player has a timer. In Hide and Seek, three villagers will hide behind buildings, trees or other structures that face the sky. The player wins if all villagers are found within a 10 minute time limit. Sometimes, albeit rarely, an extra camping villager (which can be found by building a campsite as the mayor) will play, and will reward the player with camping gear once they are found. In Capture the Flag, two teams of three both a flag on either end of the town. Racing up to try and grab their flag, players must avoid other villagers, and must "freeze" them by tagging them. The game does not end until a team's flag is captured. Sometimes, a big team capture the flag game can be hosted during the night, where all villagers in town-as well as some special characters, if there are an even number of villagers, will compete. In Scavenger Hunt, one person (the host) will hide a bunch of random items around the town-buried, in trees or scattered on the ground-and the participants must find them. There are multiple different kinds of items that are found-all resemble differently coloured presents-and are all worth different amounts of points. The game wins if they have the most points after (A:) all the items are found, which ends the game, or (B:) the 15 minute time limit ends. If players do not have a shovel, they will get a rental shovel from Lloid. Jobs Unlike previous titles, My Animal Crossing allows players to overtake part-time jobs, as a quick (but in-efficient) way to earn bells. While the first player automatically earns the job of mayor, they are still able to undertake jobs of their liking. Each job also gives a uniform, which are rare and are considered 'treasures', which the player is required to wear on the job. Doing so increases the amount of bells that they earn. Working at Tom Nook's shop is the most basic and easy job, and therefore gains the least amount of bells. It is similar to the meaningless labour of previous games, where Nook forces you to do various tasks to pay for their house. You can start working at Nook's once you pay off your first debt of 35,000 bells. Once completed, he will offer to help the player, and the player can accept of decline his offer. Working at the Museum is one of the more difficult jobs, as Blathers will give you various donations, and will ask you to place them in the correct spots. Doing so correctly, with no mistakes, earns the players many bells. Making mistakes deducts a large amount of bells, however, so it is hard to earn large amounts of money. To unlock the ability to work for Blathers, the Museum's Gift Shop must have opened. Working at the Able Sisters is a harder job, as the player must create clothing to sell. Using templates, the player must use specific colours, shapes to create the commissioned clothing. Completing the work earns little amounts of bells, but Sable, Mabel and Labelle will gradually warm up to you, and will ask you which shirts should be sold. The ability to work for the Able Sisters is unlocked once 50,000 bells are spent at their shop. Animal Island Returning from , and , the Animal Island returns in the game, and acts similarly to it's previous incarnations. Unlike previous games, the Animal Island can be accessed at any time by talking to Kapp'n at the dock. Each island will include one villager - only certain villagers can be found exclusively on the island - and two native fruits. Special bugs can only be found on the island too. Each islander has, like in previous games, a favourite fruit and a fruit allergy. Giving the islander their favourite fruit will increase their friendship and they will give you special, rare, items. The island also includes features found on Tortimer Island from . A small hut houses the Kappa family, who can send the player on various "tours" to earn Island Coins from Tortimer. Players can use Island Coins to buy exclusive items from both the Kappa and Undersea furniture sets, along with Blue and Red Aloha shirts, wetsuits and special Kappa and Tortimer sunglasses. Club Tortimer Also returning from New Leaf is the exclusive "Club Tortimer". Various changes have been made to the new area, as it is much larger. Various animal villagers can be found here (and can be persuaded to move to your town) alongside other players currently at Club Tortimer. Each player is given a small, one room house (the size of a villager's) and is allowed to decorate it and share it with others - the latter is activated by request. Other special items are found here, and special, valuable, bugs are found more commonly here. It is here where Tortimer resides while not giving tours, as he can be found in his resort home in the centre of the island. Tortimer's house includes various items from Animal Crossing and Animal Forest that have been removed from subsequent games. Many references to other Animal Crossing games can also be found here, including a golden statue of the original Animal Crossing player (the final "house upgrade" in the original games, obtainable by paying off all of Tom Nook's debts) and the bell shrine from the original Animal Forest (which was replaced with the Wishing Well in international releases). Players can apply to Club Tortimer by purchasing an application form at the island for 50 Island Coins. Weather Unlike previous installments, My Animal Crossing features a larger variation of weather that can occur in your towns. While previous installments included rain and snow, and New Lead introduced cloudy days, My Animal Crossing also introduces rare weather and weather damage. Storms can occur rarely during summer, and quite commonly during the spring and autumn. Storms consist of dark clouds, making the light outside quite dark, and rainy. Villagers will stay inside during storms as to not get struck by lightning. Trees that are struck by lightning will get caught on fire, or sometimes snap, leaving Copper to take them away. Tornadoes, which occur very rarely in the fall and summer, can destroy trees and buildings, replacing the destroyed buildings with tents for one week, at which point they will be rebuilt. Blizzards, which can happen very rarely in the winter and even more rarely in the spring, can freeze the entire town, covering trees, buildings and the ground in a sleek coat of ice and piles of snow. After a day, paths will be cleared, allowing for quicker transportation (as you are unable to run in the larger snow banks). Sometimes, albeit rarely, villagers and players will slip on the ice and fall. Even more rarely, trees will crack under the large amounts of ice. Characters Villagers See also: List of Villagers in My Animal Crossing Many villagers from previous installments reappear, and there are many other new ones, as well. Villagers are divided into categories based on their personalities, and can be Cranky, Jock, Lazy or Smug for males, and Normal, Peppy, Snooty or Uchi for females. Depending on the type of town, different types of villagers will move there. Additionally, My Animal Crossing introduces new "special" villagers. While they act identically to normal villagers, special villagers can only move into town once certain conditions are met. Because it is a challenge to get them to move to town, they are harder to move away from the town they live in. Many special villagers come from previous titles. The signature special villager is Tom Nook, who will move into the town upon completing the "Nook's Blues" side-quest. Special Characters See also: List of Special Characters in My Animal Crossing There are many different shops, holidays and events that take place in My Animal Crossing. Each special character cannot move into your town, and can only be found when certain conditions are met. Some characters, such as special characters and characters that appear on holidays, give special items when spoken to or when other events are completed. Gallery MyAnimalCrossing.png|North American logo AnimalCrossingConnections.png|PAL logo DōbutsuNoMoriNoHajimari.png|Japanese logo Trivia *When attempting to enter a villager's house while they're inside and awake, they will tell the player to come in, at which point the player does and enters the building. Sometimes, villagers will deny access to their home. **Despite this minor change, the same animation from New Leaf is used, albeit slowed down. *On the day of the game's release, the North American version of the game showed the Japanese logo on the title screen. This was fixed via a patch the next day.